Uses of Cognitive Behavior Therapy

CBT helps us choose positive thoughts instead of negative ones

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is often referred to as a form of “instant therapy” in some mental health and addiction circles. The reason that some view it as instant is because of the immediate effect is has to change the mindset of individual.

In fact, CBT is commonly used in brief intervention and crisis intervention (working with someone who is in mental crisis or suicidal) because it has the ability to have an immediate influence on one’s present cognition.

Cognition means thinking or thought processes.

When someone’s thought process or cognitions are negative or irrational then they are said to have a faulty thought process.

This faulty thought process leads the individual to think negatively, make bad choices, and produce feelings of fear, anxiety, pessimism and even depression.

When this irrational or faulty process is allowed to persist, a negative thought pattern or cognitive script is created and it leads the individual to start acting in negative ways because they have negative thoughts which produce negative feelings and they act accordingly. Furthermore, when left unchallenged, the individual may become what they think – irrational, anxious and depressed.

The goal of cognitive therapy is to undermine and modify the negative thoughts which led the individual into a pattern of despair.

Cognitive therapy has been used successfully to promote and create change where change is needed most – in one’s thinking. This change promoted by CBT is often times done efficiently and timely, helping individual’s to change irrational thoughts and thought patterns by properly monitoring their thoughts (negative ones).

Whenever they begin to identify similar thoughts/thought patterns that are negative, individuals instantly stop them in their tracks and replace them with positive ones. It may seem like a lot of work to monitor your thoughts, but once you practice it in the beginning, it becomes second nature and an instant activation switch kicks in whenever negative thoughts pop up and they get replaced with positive ones.

The problem most people have when it comes to irrational thinking is that they focus on the negative.

Furthermore, the “negative” that they are focusing on usually is based on some event that happened to them years prior. Basically, they are thinking in the “here and now” about an unfortunate or frustrating event that happened in the past which leads them to feel “bad” now.

The cognitive script or thought process they are fixated on keeps them in a “victims” role, or some sense of learned helplessness to their own feelings.

They believe that they were dealt a bad hand of cards and this is the way life is for them now and always will be. This is very common in people who suffer from addictions, anxiety disorders and depression that have no bio-chemical basis for the disorders.